UConn football notebook: Day-after laments

Updated 12:00 am, Monday, September 24, 2012

INJURY UPDATE: Safety Ty-Meer Brown tweaked his shoulder during Western Michigan's 30-24 win Saturday and will be watched closely in practice this week, according to head coach Paul Pasqualoni.

"He's going to be limited for a couple of days," Pasqualoni said during his Sunday conference call with reporters. "I'll know more by Wednesday. It's going to be a day-by-day deal. He'll be out there but he'll be limited."

The extent of the injury is unknown, but after being checked out by the trainers, Brown returned and finished the game.

Also, center Alex Mateas suffered an ankle injury against the Broncos and like Brown, will also be limited over the next few days. Tyler Bullock replaced Mateas and played well, according to Pasqualoni.

SIX SACK PACK: In his post-game presser Saturday, Pasqualoni was upbeat and positive about a lot of things, one thing he was not happy with was the six sacks allowed by the offensive line against quarterback Chandler Whitmer, who also was hammered to the Waldo Stadium turf several other times by the Broncos defense.

The backbreaker came midway through the fourth quarter when the Huskies, trailing 24-17, were driving for a potential tying touchdown and had the ball on the WMU 42 when Whitmer was hit by linebacker Desmond Bozeman just as he was attempting to pass. He fumbled and Bozeman recovered the football and ran 53 yards for a touchdown.

"I'm clearly not happy with the sacks," Pasqualoni said after the game. "The sack times were a product of not getting getting the protection re-directed fast enough. They would show blitz on one side and they did a good job of showing one thing and doing another. You gotta adjust. I thought the kids got better as the game went on, but we gave up six sacks. One of them at the end was a very costly sack, strip sack for a touchdown. It's the most devastating play in football."

After watching the film on the play, Pasqualoni was still shaking his head in disappointment.

"We were pretty close (to making a positive play). It was a product of just being ... Chandler was just focused on the guys running the routes and the guys running the routes were focused on trying to make a play," Pasqualoni said Sunday. "They blitzed two linebackers and the ball had to come out quickly and we just didn't execute the play as well as we needed to execute it. It was just a product of trying to win the game."

PASSING FANCY: Faced with a 24-7 hole against the Broncos midway through the third quarter, offensive coordinator George DeLeone had no choice but to open up the playbook. Because of that, Whitmer had his best day as a Husky. Whitmer completed 28 of 44 passes for 333 yards and three touchdowns and almost pulled off the comeback before that late sack/fumble ruined what would have been an electric comeback.

Will we see more in the passing game against Buffalo?

"We didn't do much on our first four possessions and we were down 17-0 so we had to try and fight to get back," Pasqualoni said. "So that dictated throwing the ball more. That's going to be a game by game thing, I'd like to feel like that every week we're capable of having good pass production but I can't predict the number of throws. I'd like the passing and running yardage to be balanced. I think we strive to do that but sometimes the score and the situation dictate otherwise."

ONE TOO MANY MISTAKES: In the loss to North Carolina State, the post-game theme was that the Huskies had too many "self-inflicted wounds."

After losing to Western Michigan, Pasqualoni said that the Huskies "shot themselves in the foot." And he was right.

There was that critical fourth-quarter fumble by Whitmer returned for a Western Michigan touchdown. There was that first-quarter pass to Nick Williams that bounced off his helmet and was intercepted at the Broncos 4-yard line, killing a potential touchdown. There were five dropped passes by Husky receivers (according to the Western Michigan stats). There was just one sack by a defense rated No. 3 in the country.

"If you're losing the turnover battle, which we clearly did, you're going to have to be awfully good to win games against a good opponent," Pasqualoni said. "That first one (the interception) was costly, that cost us at least three, possibly seven (points). It was just a miscue, we didn't execute the play. We've go to try and eliminate the turnovers."

UP NEXT: UConn (2-2) returns to action on Saturday, Sept. 29 at noon against Buffalo (1-2) in its final non-conference game of the season at Rentschler Field. The game will be televised on SNY.